Part of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads as follows:

The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.

Could President Obama invoke that passage to save the federal government from defaulting on its debts?

Hendrik Hertzberg, by way of a comparison with certain problems faced by Abraham Lincoln, PONDERS the situation in which Obama currently finds himself:

The President is constitutionally sworn to ďtake Care that the Laws be faithfully executed,Ē but if ...